THE annual Powys Provincial Eisteddfod, held at Llanfyllin High School, brought in competitors from across North and mid Wales.

The chairman of the organising committee, Tegwyn Jones, praised the quality of the event and the support of the community.

“We’ve had an excellent eisteddfod thanks to so much support locally, and also from competitors of a high standard from all over North and mid Wales,” he said.

“What we’ve achieved proves that the eisteddfod scene has so much to offer a community, and I can only thank the people of north Montgomeryshire for the effort they put in to bring so many Welsh speakers together.

“Adjudicators praised the high standard of the competitors and in terms of organising the event we are grateful to so many people who donated prize money, coupled with the generosity of so many town and community councils who supported us, also a donation of £1,000 from Powys county council’s Welsh Church Fund.

“Organising the eisteddfod was a real challenge to bring out the best as far as the Welsh language locally is concerned. Long may the Powys Eisteddfod continue to do this.”

An octogenerian living in Shrewsbury, who took up the challenge of learning Welsh at the age of 80, was declared worthy of the Eisteddfod’s learners’ trophy.

Miss Hilda Hunter, now 87, was brought up in England. She spent a few years in the 1950s teaching music at Aberystwyth University, but never had time to even consider learning Welsh.

Moving on from Aberystwyth she took up a music post at a training college in Wolverhampton, moving on retirement to Shrewsbury.

She said: “There was something about the sound of the spoken Welsh that touched me. I promised myself that one day I would learn Welsh, and when I retired from Wolverhampton I decided to settle down in Shrewsbury, being so near to Wales.

“Eventually, at the age of 80, I decided to take up the challenge with the help of friends in Wales, and here I am today the proud winner of the learners’ trophy.”

Congratulating Miss Hunter, the Eisteddfod’s presiding druid, Trefor Cynllaith, said “There is a challenge here to all the non-Welsh speakers who move to Wales to start learning the language.”